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Abstract

Apparatuses for and a method of transferring an assay protocol developed with an operator carried, hand held sample transfer tool to a robotic sample processor of a laboratory workstation are disclosed. The method comprises the execution of an assay protocol with a sample transfer apparatus (1), comprising a laboratory working area (2) with a first position retrieval system (3); a hand held sample transfer tool (10) with an active tool piece (5), which is manually carried by an operator (11); and a data processing unit (6) comprising a calculator (7), a memory (8), and a display (9); the data processing unit (6), and the first position retrieval system (3) being in communication connection with each other. The method also comprises detection of the actual position of the active tool piece (5) at every assay protocol step with the first position retrieval system (3) of the laboratory working area (2) in at least one of the X, Y, and Z directions of a 2-D or 3-D coordinate system and storing these data as a position data set. The method in addition comprises detection of all individual protocol parameters at every assay protocol step as a parameter data set and adding this parameter data set to the position data set, thereby creating a position/parameter data set. The method further comprises processing of all position/parameter data sets of the assay protocol as a virtual protocol and storing this virtual assay protocol with the data processing unit (6); and loading of the virtual assay protocol into the data processing unit of the laboratory workstation and attaching the hand held sample transfer tool or its basic components to the robotic sample processor of the laboratory workstation. The virtual assay protocol then can be manually executed at other places or automatically executed with the robotic sample processor of the laboratory workstation.

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